Jubilee of Consecrated Life
8-9 and 10-12 October 2025
Jubilee of Consecrated Life: A Year of Grace to Give One's Life to the World
In this time of Grace, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life also celebrate the Jubilee Year.
From October 8 to 11, they will gather to pray, share experiences, and sow the future of the People of God and of the Church, at the service of a Humanity thirsting for Peace and Hope. On Thursday, October 9, a high point will be reached with the solemn celebration of the Eucharist (thanksgiving), presided over by the Holy Father Leo.
See program: https://www.vitaconsacrata.va/it/eventi/iubilaeum2025/agenda-degli-eventi.html
What does the Jubilee represent for a religious man or woman?
It is a time to reread one's life, to recognize the signs of God's presence, to rediscover the joy of the call received, and to renew the desire for a life that is ever more human — fully realized in the gift of self for love of the world.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." (John 3:16)
For this reason, consecrated men and women feel deeply involved in building a world where Peace, not violence, reigns — a world in which everyone finds their place within the ecosystem we are part of, which binds us inseparably in a shared destiny.
In a world where vast economic interests crush the lives of entire peoples and generate unspeakable injustices, destruction of natural resources, and death, we feel called to be promoters of new relationships — of forgiveness, inclusion, hospitality, justice, and peace among peoples.
We cannot shut ourselves up within our structures like citadels or fortresses, preserving an uncontaminated life while remaining deaf to the cry rising from Earth to Heaven. This was the truest meaning of the Jubilee that was renewed every fifty years in Israel: to let the cultivated land rest so it could regain its natural fertility, to promote social harmony and justice by restoring lands to their original owners, liberating slaves, and healing the sick through the remission of their sins by God.
In the synagogue of Nazareth (cf. Lk 4:18–19), Jesus omits the verse from the prophet Isaiah that speaks of God's vengeance and proclaims himself the one through whom the year of the Lord's Grace is fulfilled (cf. Is 61:1–3).
But today, in this year 2025, who can prevent the day of vengeance from being fulfilled instead of the year of grace? That humanity, darkened by selfishness and division, might destroy itself? Now that Christ has ascended to the Father and given us the Holy Spirit, we believers have received the call to be his living presence in the world.
Consecrated men and women, in particular, feel on the front lines of this "good fight." It is about feeling responsible for our present and the future of all. To seek dialogue among peoples, cultures, and religions. Who better than religious communities can be living laboratories of integration among differences, multicultural families, and prophetic signs in the face of those who sow hatred toward those who come from another land, speak another language, or believe in another God?
Interreligious dialogue is one of the greatest urgencies to which consecrated life is also called. Only in this way can we truly feel that we are one family, sharing the same human life that we all receive each day from the same Father of all brothers and sisters — to recall Pope Francis' encyclical.
Religious life is a gift received from Christ himself — not a privilege, but a more loving service capable of transforming and converting hearts not with words, but through the example of fraternal life, prayer, work, sharing, respect, forgiveness, and love.
We can no longer remain hidden behind the walls of our convents and self-sufficiency, because the world needs the light of faith and the hope that only Christ can give. We, religious men and women, strive each day to open our hearts to the Word of God and our lives to his Holy Spirit, that he may come and be incarnate daily in our actions. Then truly the world will see the Light of salvation, and the Earth will once again be fruitful with Life.
Mario Zanotti, OSB Cam.